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Historical Metallurgy
ABSTRACT
The production of iron via the indirect process in Italy appears to be very ancient. It is suggested that as early as in the 13th century A.D., pig iron was produced on the Italian side of the Alps. The typical Italian blast furnace was developed in the valleys near Brescia and is known as the Brescian or canicchio furnace. During the 15th century, families of masters from Brescia and Bergamo who were able to build and manage ironworks, emigrated along the whole of the Italian peninsula and to Sicily, developing the Thyrrenian iron trail based on the exploitation of the ferrous ore coming from Elba island. Although bronze, not iron, is the metal of the Renaissance sculptures, and "metal" is the word sometimes used as a synonym for bronze in Italian texts, iron production and commerce, however, gave strength and wealth to the main protagonists of the Renaissance.
Introduction
The history of Italy, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and up to 1860 when a united state was established, consisted of the history of many small states strongly interacting and fighting with each other. Also, technological developments were so diverse and had to take into account both the national and the local history.
The Roman Empire had already inherited metallurgical techniques from other peoples such as the Etruscans. The monastic orders helped to maintain the knowledge, while contact with people migrating from eastern countries provided the diffusion of different techniques and the knowledge of different types of furnaces. The systematic use of water-powered devices is considered the main innovation of this period. The known metals were the same as those familiar to the Greco-Roman metallurgists: gold, silver, lead, copper, iron, tin and mercury Wrought iron was produced in small plants via the direct reduction process in a charcoal-fed bowl or small shaft furnaces.
Archaeological samples of cast iron produced during the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages have been found and reported in literature (Krapp, 1987; Hall, 1989; Tylecote, 1992; Cucini Tizzoni and Tizzoni, 1999). The real problem at the beginning of pig iron production concerned its "intentional" production, reasonably connected with the development of a market for this product, and introducing the casting of molten...